The present invention relates to a drum which is used in a medicine sharing and packing device designed to distribute and pack a variety of tablets per dose, and more particularly, a drum for a medicine sharing and packing device which facilitates attachment and detachment of tablet cassettes containing tablets and allows the number of tablet cassettes to be increased simply.
In general, a medicine sharing and packing device denotes a machine designed to automatically distribute a variety of tablets prescribed for a patient""s disease and pack them dose by dose.
For the above medicine sharing and packing device, a plurality of tablet cassettes containing a variety of tablets are arranged on a drum, individual tablet cassettes are intermittently controlled to discharge tablets prescribed dose by dose to the downside through passages provided at a drum, and tablets discharged from the drum are gathered into a hopper, discharged down under the hopper, and put into a packing sheet for packing.
A conventional drum, as disclosed in my Utility Model Registration Application No. 14638, 1998, comprises a barrel-shaped drum body with opening portions formed on both sides facing each other, and auxiliary drums which are mounted inside of the drum body which is divided by the opening portions.
In other words, the drum body is in two circular arc shapes facing each other without coming into contact with each other, and the auxiliary drums are mounted inside of the drum body so as to face each other in the state of the opening portions being open to enable a user to change tablet cassettes through them.
Of course, a plurality of tablet cassettes are arranged on the circumferential surface of the drum body and auxiliary drums, and tablets in the tablet cassettes are dropped through passages formed in the drum.
Therefore, the conventional drum is so structured that, as noted above, auxiliary drums are mounted inside of the drum body to accommodate a plurality of additional tablet cassettes, thereby allowing various kinds of tablets to be distributed and packed.
For the conventional drum, it is difficult to change tablet cassettes which are located in the central part of the drum body since the auxiliary drums are mounted on both sides with the opening portions of the drum body being not closed and accordingly the position of the tablet cassettes installed in the auxiliary drums differs.
When changing tablet cassettes in the central part of the drum body, it is possible to change tablet cassettes of an auxiliary drum at one opening portion while changing them at the other opening portion. In this case, a user may not want to rotate the drum body and so continue changing table cassettes at one opening portion. Then, the changing work may not be performed properly.
Further, there is a disadvantage that it is impossible to increase the number of tablet cassettes to be mounted because a small portion of the space formed inside of the drum is available for use.
The present invention is contrived to overcome the conventional disadvantages described above. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a drum of a medicine sharing and packing device, wherein the position of tablet cassettes to be arranged on auxiliary drums mounted inside of a drum body can be changed to a position near a user or worker by means of power and the number of tablet cassettes to be mounted on the auxiliary drums can be increased, thereby facilitating attachment and detachment of table cassettes containing tablets and allowing the number of tablet cassettes to be increased simply.
To achieve the above-described object, a drum of a medicine sharing and packing device designed to pack tablets prescribed dose by dose, wherein a drum is mounted so as to be rotated and has a plurality of tablet cassettes arranged and passages formed to guide tablets down, comprises a barrel-shaped drum body with opening portions formed on both sides facing each other and a plurality of tablet cassettes arranged detachably on the outer circumferential surface, and two barrel-shaped auxiliary drums mounted in the inside of the opening portions of the drum body and having a plurality of tablet cassettes arranged detachably on their circumferential surfaces.